XBox Live Marketplace holiday sale starts December 21

Microsoft is launching a holiday sale on several titles in the Marketplace, …

Microsoft is starting to feel the holiday cheer, and has announced a Christmastime sale on the Xbox Live Marketplace. The discounts range from bigger titles rolling out as games on demand, like Just Cause 2 and Red Dead Redemption, to smaller indie games like Comic Jumper and The Undergarden.

The sale includes titles we've raved about in the past, such as the platformer Super Meat Boy and strategy world-building game Carcassonne. There are also a couple of games whose prices we balked at, like Toy Soldiers and Castle Crashers, that now seem a bit more reasonable.

As part of the sale, Microsoft is adding a few more full-size games to its on-demand service, like Red Dead Redemption, Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands, Just Cause 2, and Ghostbusters. DLC for Battlefield: Bad Company 2 and Bomberman: Live Battlefest will also be added alongside a few new arcade games.

Discounts range from 33 to 50 percent and bring prices down to between five and ten dollars. The sale runs from December 21 to December 31, so you'll get a chance to use all those Microsoft points from friends who didn't know what else to get you. Every day of the sale a surprise discount will be announced on Major Nelson's blog, so it might be worth keeping an eye out there too.